Data for: Species-rich boreal forests grew more and suffered less mortality than species-poor forests under the environmental change of the past half-century (Hisano et al. 2019/Ecology Letters)

Climate and other global environmental changes are
major threats to ecosystem functioning and biodiversity. However,
the importance of plant diversity in mitigating the responses of functioning of natural ecosystems to long-term environmental
change remains unclear. Using inventory data of
boreal forests of western Canada from 1958-2011, we found that aboveground biomass
growth increased over time in species-rich forests but decreased in
species-poor forests, and importantly, aboveground biomass loss from tree
mortality was smaller in species-rich than species-poor forests. A further analysis indicated that growth of
species-rich (but not species-poor) forests was statistically
positively associated with rising CO2, and that mortality in
species-poor forests increased more as climate moisture availability decreased
than it did in species-rich forests. In contrast, growth decreased and mortality increased as the climate warmed regardless
of species diversity. Our results suggest that promoting high
tree diversity may help reduce the climate and environmental change
vulnerability of boreal forests.